Religion & Beliefs

Love The Stranger: Gays and Lesbians Fight to Become Christian Ministers and Pastors

Should gays and lesbians be ordained as Christian ministers and pastors? If Minnesota Presbyterians have anything to say about it, then yes, they should. Members of the the Presbytery of the Twin Cities recently voted to restore Paul Capetz's ordination … Read More

Should gays and lesbians be ordained as Christian ministers and pastors? If Minnesota Presbyterians have anything to say about it, then yes, they should. Members of the the Presbytery of the Twin Cities recently voted to restore Paul Capetz's ordination as a "minister of word and sacrament." Capetz asked to be removed from the ministry eight years ago, after the American Presbyterian Church passsed a vote requiring that "ministers be married to a member of the opposite sex or remain celibate." As an openly gay man, that clearly excluded Capetz. Thanks to changes made to the Presbyterians' Book of Order in 2006, which now allows candidates for ordination to "declare a conscientious objection to church rules," Capetz is back in business.

Also in freethinking Minnesota, a Lutheran church recently ordained lesbian pastor Jennifer Nagel in what was called an “extraordinary ordination" because it was conducted outside of the ordinary guidelines for Lutheran ordinations, which "ban non-celibate LGBT people from serving as pastors." In other good news for Godly gays, Lisa Larges, another Presbyterian who had previously been denied ordination due to her homosexuality, was recently approved by a San Francisco presbytery committee to "move along to other tests of qualifications." Opponents are preparing to challenge her progress, but Larges, who has sought ordination since 1985, is "proud of the decision by the committee." Meanwhile, a columnist over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wonders if there might be "a refuge equidistant between the anti-gay Pastor Rev. Ken Hutcherson and the Christian bashing Dan Savage of The Stranger."